Press Releases
| For Immediate Release April 24, 2003 |
Contact: J. Cory Curtis, (307) 739-1026 Elisabeth Irwin, (202) 277-2034 |
$10,000 prize for best American history
book for children five to fourteen.
Prize will be awarded July 1, 2003.
JACKSON HOLE, WY -- Lynne Cheney announced today that she is setting up a charitable fund that will make a yearly award known as the James Madison Book Award. This award will be presented to the book that, in Mrs. Cheney’s words, “best represents excellence in bringing knowledge and understanding of American history to the next generation.” The annual award, a cash prize of $10,000, will first be given on July 1, 2003.
Historically accurate fiction as well as nonfiction published in 2002 and written for children in elementary school and middle school will be eligible for the 2003 prize.
To underwrite the award, Mrs. Cheney has donated $100,000 to the newly formed James Madison Book Award Fund, a separate fund of the Community Foundation of Jackson Hole, a Wyoming 501(c)(3) public foundation. Her donation represents a portion of the profits from her book America: A Patriotic Primer. All of her net proceeds from that book go to charity.
“I hope that by recognizing books that teach children and young people about our country’s past, this award will encourage authors to take up this subject and publishers to seek out writers who can make American history come alive,” says Mrs. Cheney.
The James Madison Book Award winner will be chosen each year by a selection committee drawn from the James Madison Book Award Advisory Council. The Council, chaired by Mrs. Cheney, is composed of more than thirty members, including television producers Ken Burns and Michael Pack, historians Michael Beschloss and Jay Winik, Children’s Television Workshop founder Joan Ganz Cooney, commentator Peggy Noonan, journalist Hugh Sidey, and educator E. D. Hirsch.
“Scholars, teachers, authors, parents, and grandparents are on the council,” Mrs. Cheney said. “Its members understand the importance of teaching our children the history of our country--and of encouraging outstanding authors and illustrators as they take up that task.”
Book publishers as well as members of the James Madison Book Award Advisory Council are eligible to recommend candidates for the award. The deadline for recommending a book for the 2003 James Madison Book Award is May 31, 2003.
Additional information about the James Madison Book Award and how to recommend a book may be found on the James Madison Book Award Website launched today. The site is www.jamesmadisonbookaward.org.
The award is named after James Madison, fourth president of the United States, who loved books from the time he was a child and who changed history with the knowledge he gained from reading.
Lynne Cheney served as chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities from 1986 to 1993 and is currently a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, D. C. She is author or co-author of six books, including America: A Patriotic Primer, an ABC book of the principles on which our nation was founded. She is married to Vice President Dick Cheney.
The Community Foundation of Jackson Hole, created in 1989, exists to promote the growth of organized philanthropy that enriches the quality of life in Jackson Hole by: serving as a leader, catalyst and resource for philanthropy; providing flexible and cost-effective ways for donors to benefit non-profit organizations; making strategic grants in art, education, environment, health and social services; and building endowments to help meet future needs. Additionally, the Community Foundation manages Old Bill’s Fun Run for Charities, an annual matching grant and community event that since 1997 has raised over $22 million to benefit local non-profit organizations.
For more information, please read the James Madison Book Award fact sheet.